


A Hogwarts Secret Santa

by clicheisallido



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 01:54:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clicheisallido/pseuds/clicheisallido
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fic written for the Zombies Run Secret Santa exchange, arranged by Laura. -- One of the prompts I received asked for a Christmas Hogwarts AU and this is what I came up with. It's Christmas time at Hogwarts and the group of students decide to do a Secret Santa exchange at the recommendation of Jody and Jack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Hogwarts Secret Santa

“We should do a Secret Santa exchange!” Jody cheerfully offered among commotion of friends at Hogsmeade.  
“A secret santa? What does Santa have to do with this and why is it secret? I don’t care for secrets really.” Sam responded and took a sip of his Butterbeer, ending his third glass that evening.  
“Do you folks seriously not do Secret Santa exchanges? What about white elephant exchange?” Jack looked around incredulously at his friends and Eugene to his right.  
“What kind of muggle tradition involves elephants? Are those even easy to find? No way exchanging elephants is convenient.” Eugene chuckled and picked at his pumpkin tart a bit.  
Jody giggled at what seemed to her like a stupid question but when everyone but Jack stared at her with blank eyes she stopped. “Oh you’re being serious? Oh… I’m sorry!” she laughed a bit more and continued, “I know being muggle borns makes Jack and I different but I never recall just how different we are until moments like this!”  
“Eugene’s flippin’ Canadian and he has it easier than us, I think.”, Jack said.  
“Hey now.” Eugene flicked a bit of tart at Jack’s head, which he quickly removed from his hair with a laugh.  
“Anyway, a Secret Santa is just an exchange where we all pick each others name randomly out of a hat or something and then whoever you get you have to buy them a present! It’s simple really. It’s called Secret Santa because we’re being each others ‘Santas’ and it’s a secret who your Santa is until they give you the gift.” Jack finished his explanation and looked around hoping everyone understood fairly well.  
Everyone offered words of affirmation that they understood or simply nodded.  
“We could get this done right now, if you all wanted to. Phil, do you have lined paper?” Jack asked Phil who was sitting across from him with Zoe, his co-host at the school radio station where Jack and Eugene worked occasionally but mainly they commentated on quidditch games now.  
“You assume I’d bring a notebook along to Hogsmeade just because I’m Ravenclaw don’t you?” Jack only grinned and he sighed, “Yes. I have paper. Give me a sec.” He turned around and pulled a notebook out of his messenger bag and handed it to Jack with a pen.  
He quickly began writing down everyone’s names in his own messy penmanship and then tearing up the paper into strips.  
“Does anyone have a hat?” Jack asked around.  
“I have a cap.” Simon offered as he passed it to Five then Sam and so on down to Jack who poured all of the strips of paper into the hat. He shook the hat around vigorously and stood up.  
“Okay, each of you pass the hat around, don’t look inside, and pick a strip of paper. Glance at it quick to make sure you didn’t get your own name before passing it on to the next person, okay?” Jack offered the hat to Eugene first and then it made it’s way around to Jack. He quickly picked out the last bit of paper and tossed the hat back to Sara. “Thank you for the use of your cap!”  
“You’re welcome.” Simon took it back and quickly placed it back on his head.  
“Everyone has a name right?” Jack glanced around and most of them were nodding. “Okay. Keep the cost low, if you can. And how about we exchange the last day before break? That those who are going home can get theirs and so on.”  
“That was quick.” Sam stared at his piece of paper and pocketed it. “Well how about one more round of butterbeer, then we call it a night?” Sam grinned and shook one of his empty glasses around in the air.  
“I think you’ve had enough, fourth year.” Eugene laughed.  
“Oi! Don’t go calling me that like it’s an insult now!” Sam snapped.  
“We can’t help it, Sam. You’re kind of the baby of the group.” Jody replied with a shrug. Sam and Five were both fourth years, and the youngest. Jack, Jody, and Simon were fifth years. Eugene, Phil, and Zoe were sixth years. The only two of their group not there were Paula and Maxine, who were both seventh years, and spent most of their time lately either together alone or studying for their final exams at the end of the year. Both of them planned to rent a flat together once they finished and then pursuing some medical profession together. Paula was interested in research while Maxine just wanted to practice medicine like Madam Poffrey in the hospital wing, but Paula had turned her onto the research side of medicine in the last year and they were probably going to pursue that together. Most of the group wonders when they’ll get married at this point.  
The rest of the night continued until everyone was either too full to move or just too tired. They walked back to their respective house commons and agreed on a meeting place for the exchange on the last day of classes.  
-  
Jody was studying for her final exams in the Slytherin common room when Zoe approached her while holding a stack of books. Zoe seemed to be in a hurry but also really needed to speak with Jody.  
“Hey, Zoe! What’s up?” Jody put her quill down.  
“I just wanted to ask you something. You and Simon hang out a lot right?”  
“Um, ya we hang pretty often, I guess. Why?”  
“Well you see, I know we aren’t supposed to tell, but I got him for the exchange and I just really don’t know what to get him.” Zoe admitted while adjusting the books in her arms, most of them being history books.  
“Oooh…” Jody scratched her head mindfully, “Well, recently I got him into this muggle sort of athletic thing! It’s called yoga! And he’s super into it. If you could get a hold of DVDs or books on yoga positions, he’d love that I’m sure! But he also likes food, so any certificate to a food place would work probably. And umm…ya I dunno. That’s it I guess. Does that help?”  
“It’s better than nothing. I’m pretty bad at gift giving in general, so thanks. I better make the library before my arms fall off.”  
“Why don’t you put those all in your bag?” Jody asked.  
“My bag ripped and fell to pieces last Friday due to an unfortunate potions class with Phil.” She sighed and adjusted the books again. “I’d float them but he also stepped on my wand.”, Zoe’s eyes seemed to be brimming with angry irritation.  
“Oh my god.” Jody gasped in genuine sympathy. “That’s terrible! And right before finals!!”  
“Ya… My new wand will be coming tomorrow hopefully by owl. I had it sent express, which kind of killed my budget for fun stuff this holiday season but whatever. See you around, Jody.” Zoe nodded and went on her way quickly out of the commons and up the stairs to the rest of the castle.  
Jody felt bad for Zoe but was genuinely happy to hear about the bag thing, since now she knew exactly what to get her for Christmas. She’d just add the bag on to the scarf she was already knitting her by hand. All of her friends, minus Jack, made fun of her knitting hobby since they found it silly to make anything like that by hand when you could just magic one up easily and have the needles knit it for you. But she insisted that took all of the fun out of it. And what else was she supposed to do while watching reruns of Classic Who when at home this holiday season?  
-  
Meanwhile, on a different part of campus, a pair of fairly quiet teens sat by a window facing the lake and tried to study.  
“Gene…”  
“Yes?” Eugene answered while Jack lazily played with his mess of curly brunette hair.  
“Who did you get for the exchange?” Jack asked casually.  
“Jack… we aren’t supposed to talk about it. It’s a secret remember? You explained it to us.” Eugene answered while he skimmed through his defense against the dark arts text for important dates and bolded words to underline or notate.  
“Ya, I know. I’m just curious.”, he leaned his torso against Eugene’s and huffed. “Did you get me?”  
“Jack, stop asking. And shouldn’t you be studying?”  
“Hnn…” Jack twirled a particularly tight curl at the base of Eugene’s neck around his finger and sighed, “I think if I write one more essay or write one more notecard, I may just throw myself into the whomping willow and hope for the best.”  
“What else do you have to do?”  
“An essay for history, and I should probably work on my potion final because we have to create something that fits some specific criteria on our own. Like it has to make your hair green, smell faintly for the ocean, and not bubble maybe. I dunno…”  
“I remember that final. It seemed nastier than it actually was. You’ll do fine.”  
“Easy for you to say, braniac. I nearly failed my potions class last year because I’m colorblind and grabbed some leaf that’s supposed to be green and I grabbed its red counterpart. It nearly killed my professor too…she smelled it and nearly fainted.” Jack giggled like it was a funny memory rather than one where his professor almost died and he nearly probably got expelled.  
“Go study, idiot.” Eugene chuckled and pushed against his tummy with his elbow.  
Jack grumbled and scooted so he was leaning against the wall beside Eugene and grabbed his bookbag to find his potions book when Five ran past.  
“Is there quidditch practice today?” Gene asked aloud.  
“I think Gryffindor has the practice field, ya.” Jack answered. “The Hufflepuff vs. Gryffindor game is soon actually! Last game before finals! I can’t wait! I get an excuse to try and knock Five out of the air.” Jack was about to recount a specific incident when he nearly whacked Five in the face when they zoomed past rather than the bludger Jack intended to whack when Gene cut him short.  
“Yes, yes. And I’ll be a very lonely announcer. Now study.” Gene pointed at Jack’s textbook but Jack only pouted.  
“Give me a reason.”  
“Besides getting good marks?”  
“Ya! Motivate me.”  
Gene got a wicked grin and leaned over to whisper in Jack’s ear, “If you study, I’ll take you to the room of requirements and require a very soft bed for us.”  
Jack smirked and flushed around the ears, “Oh…well…ya okay. I can study for that. When though?”  
“Tomorrow night?”  
“I could do that.” Jack muttered with a grin as he picked up his potions reference book.  
“I’ll come knocking on your commons entrance around 8pm?”  
“Ya…and we could require staying in there all night maybe? I doubt we could make it back by curfew.”  
“Oh ya…don’t want to be caught out after curfew.” Gene chuckled, “Now get to studying.”  
“Fine, fine.” Jack did legitimately study though and mostly worked out how to create most of the potions on the study guide. While he was working out how to keep the last potion on the study guide from giving off any odor, he pondered over what to get for Five, who he had pulled for the exchange. They were the quietest of the group and also the most athletic. Maybe a new pair of gloves to grip their broom while flying? That seemed pretty perfect, and they could be found pretty easily online. He’d just have to have them flown in express via owl.  
Eugene had pulled Phil, who was a little harder to shop for. Gene had been pondering what to get Phil as soon as he pulled his name, but nothing came to mind. They had been coworkers on the radio station for a while, but they spent more time arguing at the start rather than becoming friends. Phil was a simple guy though and would probably be grateful for most anything.  
-  
“Eugene!! Hey, Gene!”  
Eugene was buttoning up his coat to head outside toward an outdoor lesson about constellations that evening for Astrology when Sam shouted his name.  
“Sam, what’s happening?” Gene adjusted his scarf so he could talk clearly.  
“Sorry…” Sam leaned over to catch his breath after sprinting the distance between them. “I just never see you around. A-and…” Sam held up a hand asking for a minute to catch his breath. Eventually he stood up straight again and began speaking clearly, “Damn I’m out of shape…anyway, I wanted to ask a favor.”  
“I’m listening. And can you make it quick? I have a class I need to be at.”  
“Ya sorry. This is exactly why I never see you. You’re two years ahead of me and always are different parts of campus for classes. Anyway, do you know if Jack needs anything? Like really wants or needs something for Christmas?”  
“You got him for the exchange didn’t you?” Gene asked.  
“M-maybe…” Sam glanced around to make sure Jack wasn’t anywhere to be seen and then continued, “Doesn’t matter. My favor is just that if you know he needs anything, to tell me. Or at least run some recon for me and tell me later. Could you do that please?”  
Eugene looked out the window impatiently and nodded, “Ya I can do that for you. I really have to get going. I’ll talk to you in the Great Hall soon around dinner time, okay?”  
“I’ll just be with the Hufflepuffs.”  
“Ya, I know. See ya.” And with that Eugene quickly made his way toward the nearby door and went off into the cold snowy night air.  
Sam turned heel and ran back to where to the class he just ran out on because he saw Eugene walking back the door. He quietly snuck back in and took his seat in the back beside Five who was just taking notes like he had never left.  
“Did I miss anything important?” Sam whispered to Five, but the professor of this class practically had bat like hearing and she turned around toward Sam.  
“Mister Yao, missing any part of my lecture is missing the important part. I recommend you don’t skip out on a review lecture the week before your final exams take place, am I clear?”  
“Y-yes, Professor De Luca.” Sam slouched in his seat and went back to taking quick notes.  
-  
Simon was stretching by the fireplace of the Gryffindor commons when Five went jogging by and towards the stairs and presumably their dorm room. He quickly made the decision to stop them though, “Hey, Five!”  
They turned and looked around to see where the voice came from before noticing Simon and approaching him. “Hello, Simon.”, they greeted cheerfully but with a tired tone.  
“Hey, ya seem tired.”  
“We lost the quidditch match. Of course I’m tired.”, with that answer they huffed and crossed their arms. “I missed a good two goals. It was a terrible game.”  
“And Jack nearly hit you twice with a bludger.”  
“Yes, and that. Anyway…why did you call me over here? I really want to sleep.”  
“Fine, I’ll make it quick.” Simon understood that Five was a person of few words. They even had a nickname with only one syllable. They just preferred the name Five to their actual name, and personally preferred the ambiguity with a name like Five. Simon continued, “I pulled Sam for the exchange. What would you get him?”  
“Sam?” Five sighed and crossed their arms in thought. “Well, he could use a watch. He’s late to nearly ever class we have together, which seems to be most of them this year.” They shook their head with a slight fond chuckle, “Anyway, umm… oh, well he really wants a set of decent headphones. He’s been getting chummy with Phil and Zoe, and they’re thinking of letting him intern with their radio show on the weekends.”  
“Those would be expensive.” Simon commented.  
“I guess…maybe just an online certificate toward a pair? He’s been saving anyway, I think.”  
“Any other ideas?”  
Five shrugged.  
“Well, thanks I guess. It’s better than my non-existent set of ideas before. This whole exchange thing is just sort of strange anyway. Leave it to muggles to come up with strange traditions like this, am I right?”  
Five just shrugged again with a tired sigh, “Good luck, Simon, and good night.” With that they left toward their respective dorm.  
“Night, Five.” Simon muttered but they were already long gone. He sighed and stared back at the warm fire before bending his leg up and over his head. He continued to do complex stretches and poses for the next thirty minutes before retiring for the night. He decided he’d search around online for something the next day and maybe find a way to get to Hogsmeade and look around.  
-  
Finally the last day of classes arrived the group of friends gathered in the Great Hall off to the side of all the dining room tables after the Christmas feast was over. Maxine and Paula even joined them even though they weren’t able to be a part of the exchange. They just pretended like they had chosen each other – as if they didn’t already plan on giving each other gifts- and exchanges between themselves.  
“How does it feel to be one semester away from being all done with this schooling nonsense?” Simon joked with a playful punch at Maxine.  
Maxine and Paula looked like they hadn’t slept in days though and both of them just made eye contact and sighed with tired smiles.  
“I’m grateful to be done for now. I believe my hand may fall off though.” Paula bemoaned with a tired laugh.  
“You’ll be joining my family for the holidays. I won’t make you write a single essay and we can just relax. How about that?” Maxine smiled and placed her hand over Paula’s with an affectionate rub for good measure.  
“I’m looking forward to that for sure.” Paula smiled and stood closer to Maxine.  
“Let’s get this exchange on the road!” Jack hollered over everyone. “Everyone just place your gifts in one big pile and I hope you all put the names of who will be receiving them on the gifts otherwise this won’t be nearly as secret as it should be.”  
“It isn’t even 100% secret anyway. I mean, who didn’t go to people and ask for advice about gift giving?” Phil looked around the group of guilty faces and grinned, “Just what I thought. But actually, I am guilt free! I didn’t tell anyone who I got and I didn’t even ask for help.”  
“Do you want a gold star?” Zoe offered with a sarcastic clap.  
Phil shot her a glare while setting his gift into the pile. “No.” he answered, “Let’s just get this exchange done with.” He huffed and stepped away from the pile.  
“Okay, everyone just find whichever gift has your name on it and then we’ll open them one by one! Okay?” Jody announced. Everyone did as asked and looked through the small pile for their gifts. “Who wants to go first?” Jody asked with her gift in hand.  
Everyone just remained silent and glanced around before Simon chimed in, “Fine, I’ll go first.” He sat down on the floor and everyone else followed crossing their legs or sitting on their knees and so on. He ripped through the newspaper wrapping paper and to reveal book. “101 Yoga Poses You Can Do with Your Dog…” Simon burst into laughter and nodded his head, “This is fantastic! Who knew I was getting into yoga? Jody I thought that was a secret between us!”  
Jody shrugged with a knowing grin, “I wasn’t your Santa.”  
Zoe slowly raised her hand and said dryly, “I’m Santa and I hope you have a dog.”  
“I do actually! Thanks.” Simon began flipping through the book and laughing at the photographs depicting various yoga poses and dogs also doing them – most of the dogs were photoshopped but that was beside the point.  
“Next?” Jody asked.  
“I’ll go, I guess.” Zoe offered. She turned over the rather large box she received and ripped off the paper from the seams out. She then made quick work of the box itself which wasn’t terribly well taped shut before revealing a brand new black messenger bag with a single pin already attached that blinked and said “Newt Network! Listen every afternoon! Our points are not ‘newt’!” Zoe smiled and lifted the bag out of the box. “A new bag.”  
“Oh hey! To replace to the I-I --- I mean the one you lost in that un-unfortunate accident.” Phil stammered after catching himself from almost fessing up to the fact that her really did feel like it was his fault that her backpack had been ruined despite all of his arguing to the contrary.  
“Who?” Zoe glanced around and Jody smiled knowingly. Zoe knew it was her as soon as they made eye contact. “Jody?”  
“Yup!” Jody smiled proudly. “Perfect right? I made the pin myself too!”  
“Ya…It’s perfect. Thank you so much.” Zoe pet the bag affectionately and took care to not nudge the button too much.  
“Yay! Okay! So moving on. Whose next?”  
Eugene lifted his bag, “I’ll go, I guess.” He lifted out the tissue paper and began folding it up and setting it to the side before delving into the actual present. Jack groaned impatiently at his side but Gene just ignored him and went onward. He pulled out an argyle print sweater in navy, grey, and white. “This is so soft! Wow! And thick too!” Eugene rubbed his face against it and smiled. Jack grabbed a sleeve and rubbed it between his fingers and seemed genuinely impressed.  
“Ya this is really nice. Who got it?”  
Five raised their hand.  
“Thank you, Five!” Eugene beamed and folded up the sweater on his lap.  
“You always look so cold and lonely during the Hufflepuff vs Anyone games so I figured you could use an extra sweater.”  
“Aww, thanks.” Eugene genuinely appreciated the gesture and Jack seemed to as well.  
“Next?” Jody asked happily.  
“I’ll go.” Five stated as they opened up a small unwrapped box. Inside was a pair of riding gloves for playing quidditch in. Five’s eyes lit up and they quickly put them on over their hands. “They’re a perfect fit!”  
“Oh that’s lucky then.” Jack stated. “I was worried they wouldn’t fit since I just have no idea what your hands are size wise. All I ever do is stare at your head anyway when I aim.”  
“Well, thank you!” Five smiled and rubbed their hands over the outside of the gloves. “I’ll wear this at our next game for sure.”  
“Maybe you’ll be able to grip the quaffle now.” Jack commented, which got him a well aimed empty gift box to the head.  
“Hah. Hah.” Five mocked laughter with a smile while Jack chuckled and rubbed his head.  
“Good shot. Ya I deserved that. How about I open my gift next?” Jack glanced around and no one fought him on it so he ripped into his box quickly. Jack whooped and pulled out a DVD from the box with a wide grin. “ ‘Pacific Rim’!! This movie was the raddest bit of American filming I’ve seen in years! Ohman! This is great! Who knew I liked this film?”  
Sam raised his hand but immediately admitted that he had an insider tell him about the movie. “Wasn’t the easiest thing to track down since the school’s wifi blocks a bunch of muggle shopping sites for some reason and no wizarding sites had anything like it. But I found it!”  
“Brilliant! We’ll have to watch it together some time so you can experience the intense reality of aliens invading from the ocean depths while mankind fights back in massive fighting robots!” Jack fist bumped Sam from across the circle and continued staring at the DVD, “Thanks again.”  
“You’re welcome!” Sam seemed genuinely proud of himself since Eugene unsure of what Jack would want and did some pretty poor recon work. All he could tell Sam was that Jack had been obsessing for this film, but he wasn’t sure if he owned it already or not. Apparently not! Which was to Sam’s advantage. “Can I go next?” Sam asked.  
“Sure.” Jody nodded.  
Sam only had a card to open. On the front was a fat cat in a santa hat and when the card was opened the cat walked around to the inside of the card and meowed Jingle Bells and then wished Sam a Meowry Christmas. Then a compartment popped open in the card and a gift card was sitting in it. “Is this to that electronics store in Diagon Alley? The new one?!” Sam asked excitedly as he turned the card over in his hands.  
“Yup.” Simon answered, immediately outing himself as Sam’s Santa.  
“This is so brilliant! I can finally get those headphones for the studio! And then maybe I can work you guys during a show?” Sam looked expectantly at Phil and Zoe.  
Phil stammered so Zoe answered with a shrug and a non-committal, “Ya probably.”  
Sam pumped his fist, “Aw ya! Thank you, Simon!”  
“No problem.” Simon grinned and went back to flipping through his new book of yoga poses and snickering to himself occasionally.  
Jody glanced at Phil. “You’re the last one besides myself. Want to go?”  
“Sure.” Phil took the tissue paper out of his bag and reached inside to find something else wrapped in tissue paper. “This is kind of heavy.”, he mused as he unraveled the paper from whatever it was. What he revealed was a dense airtight bag of ground coffee. “Coffee?” Phil seemed a bit let down until he read the label, “This is that nice finely ground coffee from London! And it’s hazelnut!” Phile squeezed the bag so a puff of scent came out and he inhaled deeply. “Mmmm! I love this coffee company but it’s so out of the way for me! And kind of pricey for coffee! Oh who got me?” Phil looked around joyfully and made eye contact with Eugene. “You?”  
“Yup. I’ll admit, Zoe told me you liked that place.”  
“Zoe?” Phil looked to his cohost sitting beside him. “You really listen, don’t you?” he smiled.  
“Don’t get all mushy feelsy on me now. Enjoy your dumb coffee.”  
“Thank you, Gene!” Phil squeezed the bag again and inhaled happily.  
“No problem! That just leaves you, Jody.”  
“And Phil must have got me. He’s the only one who hasn’t claimed to be anyone’s Santa.” Jody looked to Phil who nodded.  
“Yup! I hope you like it.”  
“I’m sure I will.” She reached inside the bag and pulled out something soft wrapped in tissue paper. Once unraveled she exclaimed, “OH! Baby alpaca yarn!” Jody happily rubbed the yarn against her face and smiled at Phil. “It’s perfect!”  
“I hoped so. I don’t know anything about yarn, but well you knit and it was super soft. I hope it’s enough to make something.”  
Jody smiled and read the label, “It’s about 110yds and fairly chunky so maybe I can make a short cowl or hat! Ya! Oh thank you, Phil.”  
“Merry Christmas.” Phil answered with a satisfied smile.  
“So that’s everyone?” Maxine asked. Her hands were laced together with Paula’s and she was leaning on Paula’s shoulder. Maxine looked like she might pass out.  
“Are you going to make it back to the commons?” Phil asked with a chuckle.  
“I’ll make sure she makes it back, Phil.” Paula answered as she stroked Maxine’s hair.  
“I trust you will.” Eugene offered, as the other Ravenclaw of the group other than Phil.  
Jack stood up and stretched his back. With a satisfied smile and greeted his friends, “See that wasn’t so bad right?”  
“It was pretty fun, I’ll admit.”, Simon answered.  
“I’m so glad!” Jody continued to stroke her yarn and conjure up ideas of what she could knit with it.  
“Is anyone not going home for the holidays?” Jack asked.  
“I won’t be.” Eugene answered.  
“What?” Jack seemed a bit shocked like he was unaware. “Why didn’t you tell me? You can come home with me maybe!!”  
“No, it’s fine. I’ll be fine.” Eugene assured. Jack gave him a look letting him know the conversation was not over but Gene brushed it off for now.  
Everyone said their goodbyes to those leaving early the next morning and exchanged Merry Christmas’s and other well wishes before heading off to their respective dormitories for the night.  
-


End file.
